SCCA ITS 2nd Gen build
 

first off as the title says i'm going to start building my 2nd gen into a SCCA ITS car...this project will probably take some time to finish becuz i dont have to much free time at the moment but hopefully i will have the roll cage and all safety equipment in by feb 20 so that i can go to driving school to get my SCCA regional license... i bought a '88 shell and im in the process of transferring my engine, tranny, suspension and diff from my '86 gxl..the reason for this is my '86 was originally an auto and i had made a custom trans mount to convert it to a manual trans (that is against the rules :wallbash:) so far today my friends jesse (rotaryguy007), johnny and i start by removing the sound deadening (as much as possible with the amount of dry ice that i bought)...we also transferred the diff and put my rear coilovers on (HKS Hiper d) i completely forgot about the camera at the time so no pics of that :dammit: ..here are a few pics that i did take

here is the donor car

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1118081332.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...anda/me3-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/86panda/me4.jpg

the shell

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03709.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03704.jpg

and removing the sound deadening

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03705.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03706.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03707.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03711.jpg

we pretty much removed everything but still need to work on the tunnel since it is the hardest spot to get the dry ice on too

and here is my friend johnny chipping the tar off and i think he is having fun

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03714.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03715.jpg

and heres a few more pics of the new car with my S5 taillights on

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03713.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03712.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03719.jpg

ill post some pics tomorrow of the progress

Two months is an aggressive schedule, but do-able. good luck! I have a similar project, but my progress is much slower. One thing that you may want to consider is that if you don't make the school deadline, you can still use the car for a season of HPDE, which has some benefits:

1) It will probably net you more seat time for your $$
2) You can work on your racecraft - just tell your instructor that you are working on your competitive license and they'll usually be more than happy to work on things like off-line driving, passing, etc.
3) use the time to tune and tweak the car.

I'm not sure what your budget is like, but you may consider taking those nice S5 taillights off and replacing them with the S4's. Sell the S5s and use the cash to buy all those little items like fuel sample port, elect cut off switch, roll-bar padding, window net, harnesses... ;)

They'll just get cracked in your first season, probably by a Miata using you as a brake marker.

Or just put the $$ in the tires/brakes/fluids/fees budget.

Good luck, and keep us up to date!

-b

Good luck man, but as someone who has undergone this whole process I would honestly suggest that you take a hard look at your goals. The prices of ITS cars has been plummeting lately and there is absolutely NO WAY you will build a competitive car on your own for the price people are selling cars for.

You can a good ITS rx7 now for anywhere from $7-$13 k. My car cost me over $20k to built, and two years of labor. Not to mention that it was two seasons that I missed out on racing.

I hate to be a bummer, but I just want to make you aware of the fact that it WILL be much more complicated and time and money consuming than you can imagine. I will say that it is an AMAZING experience racing a car that you built from scratch, and its awesomne knowing the car inside out like I feel I do now.

In either case good luck to you, and dont hesitate to PM me for any advice or suggestions as I have gone through the whole process and would love to help out any way I could!

thanks for the idea of switching tail lights. im going to use the s4 tail lights but still keep the s5 tail lights. HPDE would be a good idea if i cant make the deadline. where can i purchase the sample port??

I have seen some very nice ITS RX-7 for sale but i just want the experince and knowing the fact that i built my own car and know what the car is and what it will become... my first season i dont really care to much to be competitive, i just want to use this first season to get experience and seat time and learn what it feels like to race door to door. since im use to track events like redline which dont allow passing.

thanks for your support. i will continue to update this thread as i go along..and hopefully i remember to take more pictures this time :) i just hope it stops raining soon so i can go work on it some more

a couple things, i'm echoing whatthe other guys are saying a bit.

1. in wheel to wheel racing the car WILL get hit. its just a fact of life. dont go out of your way to make it too nice. this is hard for me too, i wanna make it perfect. i remember the first pro7 car we built, it was really really nice, new everything, 7 laps later, it was done, the only part we saved was a door....

2. the driver is the best mod you can make. chipping the sound deadening off is a waste of time at this point. improving the driver will make much much more difference. you might wanna look at the rules too, our old FC had a hard time making weight, and it still had the sound deadening in it.

if you're into this kind of thing, the speed secrets series of books is quite excellent

lol i know im not trying to make it look nice or anything..and that really blows about ur first pro 7 car but i know it happens and i expect it to happen ive seen several videos and i see what goes on so expect it lol.

what class did u run ur FC in?? did it have a roll cage? according to the roll cage builder my cage is going to way approx. 170-80 pounds, and i have read the rule book many times especially becuz im so anal i want to make sure i do everything right the first time lol minimum weight is 2680 with driver and by my calculations from the information that i have gathered i should still weigh about 60-70 pounds over with a 1/4 tank of gas, and im not to light my self i weigh 191 so imma add alot of weight lol

today we got the front suspension done, arp studs in the front at the moment,and a manual rack..it was really hard to work since it was raining all day and again didnt get to take any pics (didnt want to get my camera wet) ill take some tomorrow of todays progress and tomorrow...its not suppose to rain tomorrow so hopefully i can knock out a bunch of stuff tomorrow

That area looks familiar! Good luck with the build :)

lol im sure it does lol u do know where thats at right? you've been there several times, lol and thanks for the support

http://www.fuelports.com/

Good luck on the build! The dry ice brings back not so fond memories.

well on the bright side....once your finally done with removing the damn tar the worst part of the build will be done with!

Hated removing that stuff, but it is totally worthwhile just to have a nice clean interior. Even with the knowledge that you might get hit and the car might be destroyed Im too anal to ever go out to the track in a junker. Half the fun for me is the car, and I like it to be perfect, and looking good. Ive never understood people spending money racing cars that look like just flew out of a pile of dog crap. I also believe in the philosophy of the pro teams. with them keeping things clean and looking good is a natural part of a well prepared car. Anything else leads to sloppyness and slopyness leads to things like loose bolts, bad prep, etc.

Just my 2 cents.

I agree. Don't just clean while you're cleaning... the job is actually a nut and bolt check, you just happen to be cleaning at the same time!

k its time to update you guys.sorry its taken me a while just been really busy because we had a party on sat and some family is down from washington state to visit

first off we finished up the suspension until i get some more parts and we got the manual rack on

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03722.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03724.jpg

we got the trans in
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03726.jpg

we pulled out the engine( i know its dirty but since i was in a rush we didnt wash it ill just worry about it when i rebuild it in the near future

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03727.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03730.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03731.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03805.jpg

we put the dash in and my seats and the door panels (just until the roll cage is installed and i get my buckets seats)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03804.jpg

and thats pretty much where i stand at the moment until i get the roll cage in and get the rest of my suspension, exhaust and misc.

heres a few more pics of it parked out side my house

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03803.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03802.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03801.jpg

and i wanna thank Lucky 7 for letting me swap everything over at there shop
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03800.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/DSC03799.jpg
LOL! i love that sticker

thanks!!

i will keep u guys updated

I suggest picking up all the books about race car preparation by Carroll Smith. Some of the stuff in them is dated at this point, but they're very good.

Looking good keep us posted lol =).

yes indeed keep us posted and good luck

Looks like it's coming along nicely. Nice build man, keep us up on it.